Thornber still wastes our money

Many people will remember Hampshire County Council’s unnecessary and expensive “refurbishment” of their offices, complete with gold plated taps in their washrooms, at our expense. I am sorry to report that Tory county council leader Ken Thornber hasn’t learned.

Despite the public outcry and the need to cut their own spending rather than cutting our services they are at it again. I am indebted to colleagues across Hampshire who have highlighted the spending of £223,000 on a vanity TV channel watched by just 57 people.

The full story was published recently in the Daily Mail. I don’t think I need to add any more. You can read all about whats been dubbed Ken TV here.
Daily Mail and Andover Advertiser

Major Tory donor forced to repay £2million after investing in tax-dodge scheme favoured by footballers and city banks

One of the Tory party’s biggest donors has been ordered to pay back millions of pounds in tax after a judge ruled against an offshore scheme he had used to slash his bills.

The judge said a Guernsey-based trust set up by hedge fund boss George Robinson, one of the City’s highest-paid financiers, was ‘cosmetic’ and told him and three colleagues to pay the taxman £13million.

Mr Robinson, who is facing a personal bill of more than £2million, used an arrangement favoured by top footballers and City banks such as Goldman Sachs after being advised it could help him avoid tax.

But Revenue & Customs challenged the offshore arrangements, and now a tax tribunal has ruled in its favour. This will embarrass David Cameron, who has called aggressive tax-dodging ‘morally wrong’.

Labour Shadow Cabinet member Michael Dugher said: ‘This revelation about yet another tax-dodging Tory shows once again David Cameron’s talent for getting close to the wrong people.’

Mr Robinson has given large sums to the Tories, including £50,000 last October and £10,000 in January, and is also a trustee of Mr Cameron’s favourite think-tank, Policy Exchange.

He is entitled to be a member of the Prime Minister’s ‘Leaders Club’ for those who give more than £50,000 each year. Members can attend lunches to discuss issues with Mr Cameron and other senior Tories.

Mr Robinson, whose Sloane Robinson hedge fund is one of the most successful in the City, is said to be worth £220million.

The fund set up a Guernsey trust in 2004 after being advised it could avoid paying £3.3million in National Insurance contributions due on performance-related bonuses worth £24million for him and three other senior partners.

Story from the Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2177062/George-Robinson-Major-Tory-donor-forced-repay-2million-investing-tax-dodge-scheme

PLANNING AND TOWN COUNCIL UPDATE

I returned from holiday to discover that despite overwhelming local opposition and the unanimous support of councillors on the borough’s Northern Area Planning Committee Test Valley’s Planning Control Committee has approved plans to build 50 new homes at Shepherds Spring School.

I am indebted to Cllr Phil North for his support in opposing this plan and putting local people and their views above narrow political expediency. What a pity the same cannot be said of his colleague Janet Whiteley who at the PCC voted for the application. This is not the first time Mrs Whiteley has put party politics above representing the local electorate. She declined to support residents opposing Tory plans to divert Smannell Road through the new Augusta Park housing development and once famously voted for a plan to convert a house on King Arthurs Way into substandard flats arguing there were no parking problems in the area. Mrs Whiteley hopes to be mayor next year.

Meanwhile the real representative of local people, town councillor Barbara Carpenter, is getting on with the job of looking after local interests and getting things done. The latest Roman Way Forum took place on 30 June and the next is provisionally booked for 15 September. Blocked drains have been cleared in Caesar Close and Mrs Carpenter is working with council officers to get them to install additional disabled parking bays, repair footpaths and cut back overgrown trees in the area.

RESIDENTS’ PLANNING SUCCESS

Roman Way residents are celebrating after Test Valley’s Northern Area Planning committee rejected proposals to build 50 homes at Shepherds Spring School.

The committee listened to representations from Cllr Barbara Long, of Andover town council, and from me, acting as spokesman for local residents. We both condemned the proposals as unsafe and unacceptable. The plan would have seen a new access road for fifty homes pushed through between the Andover Education centre and the Spring Meadow children’s centre onto the already busy Smannell Road.

We argued this access road would be unsafe for residents and users of the children’s centre and that it would cause traffic chaos in the area. These arguments were taken up by a number of committee members who questioned why a more suitable access hadn’t been considered. They were unanimous in expressing their concerns about the impact of extra traffic on residents and users of the two educational centres.

The proposal was badly researched, badly presented and not in the local interest. I am pleased to see it has been emphatically rejected. It sends a clear message to the developers that their plans are not good enough. The site, the residents and Andover deserve better and should get it.

Last night’s decision wasn’t however final as planners recommended it be referred to the borough’s planning control committee for ratification. Town councillor Barbara Carpenter who co-ordinated opposition to the plans said “Our campaign will continue. We have persuaded one committee that the proposals are unacceptable. We hope to do the same again.”

Council leader fills his office with luxury armchairs

At the last Test Valley Council meeting, Leader, Ian Carr was asked whether he thought being Leader of the Council for 13 years was about 10 years too long. The question was posed by his Liberal Democrat opposite number, Mark Cooper.

“Cllr Carr is exhibiting behaviour which suggests he is increasingly detached from his Council colleagues,” says Cllr Cooper. “A recent excellent piece of work done by a Councillor Panel on improving Test Valley’s recycling rates was summarily dismissed by Cllr Carr at a recent Cabinet meeting; he has recently granted himself significant extra powers without reference to either Cabinet or Councillor colleagues and now he’s equipped his office in Test Valley’s Andover Headquarters with luxury armchairs.” (see below)

“The furniture, I’m told, is ‘not bog-standard furniture procurement’ but is second-hand, and re-conditioned by a local supplier. It cost £1,400 which came from the Council’s Estates Services budget.”

“I can’t see why Cllr Carr would want to fill is office with a number of Chesterfield leather settees and armchairs, unless he’s going to entertain his political cronies,” he says. “If that is the case, he should buy the chairs out of his Leader’s allowance rather than use Council taxpayers money to buy them.”

Andover Question Time

Andover Older People’s Forum has a Question Time on Thursday 24th May. The meeting wil be chaired by Haydn Watkins of Andover and District Older People’s Forum and include speakers from Hampshire County Council, Hampshire NHS, Test Valley Borough Council and Age Concern.

Full details are given on the attached poster poster

The organisers would like questions submitted in advance using the attached form which should be sent to Test Valley Community Services.

Car parking charges to rise

Test Valley’s Tories have broken their election promise to freeze parking charges. The picture below is taken from an election address delivered across Alamein ward only a year ago by Cllrs North, Brook and Whiteley.

Barely a year later they have quietly dropped this promise and allowed the leadership of the council to raise parking charges to help balance the books. Meanwhile they hold over £76 million in reserves and spend a staggering £1.3 million on councillors and their meetings.

The only murmur of dissent came from Cllr North who was quickly told to shut up. The other two have failed to comment on this disgraceful deceipt. I have tried to follow the decision process and found the original recommendation by the council’s cabinet was not taken to full council as originally planned. Nor was it discussed by the council’s scrutiny committee (where Cllr North as vice chairman cancelled the meeting when it could have been raised). It was postponed a number of times until finally sneaked through without the usual fanfare of press releases we have come to expect from the council leader and his cronies.

Notices have appeared in all the council car parks less than a month before the increases are due to come in to force and details are hidden away on the council’s website where it takes time and effort to find them. Full details of the charges are available here New Parking charges

Time to drop the Tory NHS Bill

I am pleased to see the Lib Dem Spring Conference has voted to oppose the government’s proposed changes to the NHS (BBC News today). As one of the delegates at last year’s conference who called on the government to think again on its proposals I fully support this decision. Despite many Lib Dem successes in rewriting this flawed plan the Tories have still to prove they really understand what the NHS is for and what the vast majority of people in this country expect of it and of them.

For a full analysis of how the bill has changed see the report by Dr Evan Harris here

We are governed by a coalition because the Tories didn’t win the last election – they couldn’t be trusted to run the country on their own. Lib Dem ministers have been very successful in curbing the lunatic fringe of the Tory party and stopping their idiotic excesses. They should now do the same with this bill. Coalition means government by consent and compromise.

There is no room for Tory dogmatists dictating policies to a country who totally reject those policies. There is no consensus for the changes proposed, they were not part of the coalition agreement, they are rejected by the health professions and by the majority of voters – everyone except the right wing of the Tory party. To continue to force these unaceptable and unworkable changes on the NHS is counterproduction. The bill should be scrapped now.

Shepherds Spring Housing update

In a surprise move the recommendation to approve plans for 50 homes at Shepherds Spring has been withdrawn. Test Valley planners have asked for more details from the highways department on the effect of the plans. Residents have always argued the highways surveys were inadequate and parents are concerned that the new access road will put children’s safety at risk.

Now it seems the planning department are finally listening and asking the same questions we have been asking. As a result of this no decision was made at Thursday’s planning meeting as we expected. I expect the plan to be resubmitted at another planning meeting perhaps as soon as the end of this month. I hope to see the planners have listened to local concerns and recommend refusal of the plan.

This laln is overdevelopment of the area and a threat to road safety. We will continue our campaign until the plans are rejected. I have already written to all the members of the planning committee urging them to reject the proposals. You can read a copy of my letter here Letter to NAP. I will also be speaking against the application when it finally comes to the committee.

The county council must start again with a safer and more realistic plan. In the meantime they should tidy up the site and use the land as allotments. I will keep telling them this in the hope they listen to commonsense.